Running on the Shoulders of Giants

Since the early '90s, I've been privileged to regularly be around elite distance runners. Actually, not just around, but with -- as in run with, dine with, and talk at length with -- thanks to a combination of professional assignments, natural curiosity, and a willingness to place myself in potentially disastrous situations. ("A hilly 44-miler with ultra legend Ann Trason? I'll be fine!" I wasn't.)

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What follows is some of what I've observed as commonalities among the many elites I've invited myself to tag along with. Some are approaches to running, some are things done while not running, some are habits of mind. All are things that non-elites, yours truly included, regularly do otherwise, to the detriment of our running. If you're looking for a New Year's running resolution or two, you could do worse than adopting some of these ways.

VARY GREAT

If I had to pick one major difference between how elites and non-elite competitors train, it would be in how much their paces vary from day to day, session to session.

Many of us in the second category consider it a big deal if one day's run is more than a minute per mile slower than another's. Even the day after a hard workout, we're running near what we consider our "normal" pace, that sort of mediumish effort we seem to lock into day after day after day. The more obsessive among us regularly check our splits to make sure we're running fast enough to merit leaving the house.

Let's contrast that with an unforgettable morning I spent in Kenya a few years ago. I joined Isaac Songok, owner of a 12:48 5K PR, and Augustine Choge, a slacker at 12:53 for the distance, for their 6 a.m. run. We ran for 49 minutes to cover what is perhaps a 10K loop. At the time, I was in about 17:30 5K shape, and even though we were running at 8,000 feet of altitude, the entire run felt like a stumble to me. Imagine what it felt like to them! I looked over occasionally to make sure Isaac and Augustine were even awake.

Later that day, Isaac and Augustine did a brief warm-up, and then ran the same loop as a tempo run in just under 31:00. That's roughly three minutes per mile faster than on the first go-round. And bear in mind that their shorter hard sessions would be run at another minute per mile faster than that. How often do most of us have such vast differences between runs' paces?

This habit isn't limited to Kenyans. The morning of the 1995 Boston Marathon, a friend and I ran with future Olympian Mark Coogan. Later that year, Mark would run 13:23 for 5K, whereas my friend was a 31:00 10Ker then, and I was a minute behind him. Mark was doing a fartlek workout the next morning, so he peeled off after 45 minutes; my friend and I carried on for another half an hour. As Mark left, my friend said sarcastically, "Thank God, now we can pick it up." And we did.

One last example: Several years later, my job situation had me passing through 2:13 marathoner Keith Dowling's town on my way home from work. We ran together on his easy days, and we ran no faster than I would have on my own, even though I was in about 17:00 5K shape then. Of course, the following day, Keith would do a workout I would be dropped on after a few hundred meters.

SO

. . . run easier than you think you should on your recovery runs. Feel as if you're storing up, rather than slowly leaking energy. You'll be able to run faster on your hard days, leading to faster race times, and you'll lower your risk of injury.

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START SLOW, FINISH FAST

In addition to greatly varying paces between runs, elites do the same within runs much more so than non-elites. On most workaday runs, it takes most of us less than a mile to be running about as fast as we'll be at any time during the run. In contrast, most of the runs I did with elites in my first several years of doing so had me half-stepping them at the beginning as they eased into the run. Only after I realized I had this annoying tendency did I make a conscious effort to tuck in and learn as the pros gradually let their bodies dictate how fast we should be running.

Again I'll illustrate with a story from Kenya. On my first solo run there, I covered a supposed 8K loop in 35 minutes in my usual Steady Eddy way. The next morning, I joined a group of the country's fastest high school girls, and we ran the same loop, this time also in 35 minutes. But there the similarities end.

We began at no more than a shuffle. I spent the first 10 minutes alternating between trying not to trip over my feet and marveling at my great good fortune that the girls had apparently been told to take it easy on the old white man. At some point, though, I realized I was no longer having to hold back, even though it was impossible to say when the shift had occurred. Soon after, and again with no easily recognized transition, we were hauling. With about half a mile to go, most of us were breathing with every other footstep. The run finished with our pack shattering as the fittest girls sprinted up the final hill.

SO

. . . obviously, you don't want to finish every run at race effort. But let the pace come to you, rather than looking at your watch when you pass that garage in the first mile of your run and thinking, "Ugh, I'm usually here 15 seconds faster – I'd better pick i t up." Finishing some runs much faster than you start them not only feels great, but is good reinforcement for how you want to feel at the end of races and hard workouts.

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WORK THE RECOVERY

We've all heard that between workouts is when our bodies make the gains in fitness that training spurs. But how many of us keep paying attention to our running during that time so that our recovery is maximized? Conversely, how many of us slip out of runner mode a few minutes after finishing and do not resume our athletic identity until soon before the next run?

Elites overwhelmingly fall into the first camp. Of course, most of us can't take daily naps or get massages twice a week. And frequent ice baths, while no doubt effective, can test the dedication of even the most hardcore racer. But one of the most important ways elites enhance their recovery is practical for everyone: They consistently get in fluids and calories, especially carbohydrates, soon after finishing a run.

Research has shown that carbs taken in the first half hour after exercise are absorbed by muscles at a rate three times greater than normal. Although the rate of conversion into glycogen slows after that, the recovery window when your body is most receptive to refueling stays open for about another 90 minutes. Regularly neglecting to take advantage of the opportunity for enhanced recovery results in that feeling of dragging through a lot of runs, never feeling as fresh as you think you should.

I've known about the recovery window for years, and have tried to force down calories soon after long runs and hard workouts, despite the gripes of my wimpy gastrointestinal system. But I hadn't realized how much better of a job I could do until Meb Keflezighi came to town for the 2007 Beach to Beacon 10K.

The day before the race, Meb and I ran the second half of the course. Almost immediately after finishing some striders on the grass, Meb had a banana and some sport drink. We ran together the three days after the race, and he did some version of the above each time.

Meb would have probably run the same time in the race if he had forgone a banana after jogging a few miles. What observing him over a few days really impressed on me was the habit he made of post-run nutrition – to Meb, it was simply part of the day's training, as integral as tying his shoes correctly. I've seen the same approach with James Carney, Joe LeMay, Anne Marie Lauck, Boaz Cheboiywo, Andrew Leatherby, Chris Solinsky, and on and on and on. (Solinsky and Carney are fans of chocolate milk.)

SO

. . . make your best effort to drink fluids and get in a few hundred calories in the first 30 minutes after every run. A little protein with carbs enhances the carbs' absorption. If you're running from somewhere other than a house, bring the food with you. If your stomach doesn't appreciate solid food soon after you run, take the calories in liquid form .

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DRILL, BABY, DRILL

An increasing number of elite distance runners do as sprinters have long done, and regularly perform form drills and dynamic range-of-motion exercises. While most of my workouts with elites 10 or 15 years ago were simply runs, more recently drills show up on the program if I stick around for more than a day. Sometimes they're after an easy run, sometimes before a hard workout, sometimes after a tempo run. I even saw Shalane Flanagan doing drills within an hour of winning the Olympic trials 10,000m.

Every run I did in Kenya with locals was followed by at least 10 minutes of skipping, butt kicks, bounding and the like. Americans I've run with recently -- Carney, Solinsky, Tegenkamp, Keflezighi, Jonathan Riley, Anthony Famiglietti -- don't do them every day, but definitely often enough that they're an integral part of their training.

The reasoning is straightforward: The exercises fine-tune running form, increase range of motion and foot speed, help correct muscle imbalances, and strengthen many of the core stabilizing muscles, such as the hip rotators. The result is a stronger athlete less susceptible to injury and more capable of maintaining good running mechanics in the second half of a race.

SO

. . . after a couple of easy runs per week, do a couple 30-meter stretches of each of several drills. Choose ones that emphasize the parts of the running motion where you're weakest. (For good sources of information on the vast array of exercises out there and how best to perform them, see runningDVDs.com.) Finish the sessions with a few dynamic stretching exercises. Once you're comfortable with the routine, incorporate it as part of your warm-up before hard workouts, and then add it to your pre-race warm-up.

WARM UP AGGRESSIVELY

While watching Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky warm up before the 2008 indoor national 3,000m championship, I kept checking my watch. Didn't these guys know their race wasn't for another hour? So what was with all the drills and calisthenics and jogging and stretching? That evening, they finished first and second, and my eyes were opened anew to what warming up really means.

Mind you, this is coming from someone whose friends have often chided him for insisting on getting to races at least an hour before the start. But, like most non-elites, my usual pre-race warm-up has historically consisted of 20 or so minutes of jogging, some perfunctory stretching, and a few striders soon before the start "to get my legs used to turning over." Anything more would be just wasting precious energy needed in the race, right?

Watching Matt and Chris that evening reminded me of a discussion I'd had the previous month with coaching legend Jack Daniels. He said that the usual pre-race short sprints do little but prepare runners to start really fast. He recommends a few minutes' run at about threshold pace, ending five to 10 minutes before the start, as the last hard part of a warm-up. Doing so, he says, gets you just cognizant enough of fatigue that you won't want to go out too hard. It also produces the phenomenon most of us have noticed of the second repeat in a workout being far more comfortable than the first.

Thinking about that conversation while watching Matt, Chris and others (Jen Rhines, Shannon Rowbury, Sara Hall) warm up aggressively made me realize how ineffectual most people's warm-ups are. They're better than nothing, of course, but don't get our respiratory, muscular and metabolic systems ready to operate at a high level right from the gun. A few months later at the Olympic track trials, I again took note of how extensively, comprehensively and ambitiously nearly all the distance runners warmed up. In subsequent discussions, I've been told by many elites that they do roughly the same warm-up before their hard workouts.

SO

. . . experiment - first in workouts - with a more energetic warm-up. Finish your warm-up jog significantly faster than you started it. Do a full stretching routine and a full set of striders. Before longer repeats, do a couple 200s or 400s at your goal pace for the workout. Once you're confident you've found the routine that works for you, start using it at races. There, do a comfortably hard run of a few minutes, finishing 10 minutes before the start.

BE A REALITY-BASED OPTIMIST

Elites are born with great physical gifts that become obvious once they start training hard. But they really reach their potential by having a mindset that all of us, regardless of our genetics, can adopt.

How many times have you had a good string of training going, but then have a bad workout, and suddenly freak out about what kind of shape you're in? How often has one sub-par race come to be taken as the new norm of your fitness?

The elites who consistently achieve excellence think otherwise. I've talked with scores of national- and world-class runners whose outlook I've come to think of as "reality-based optimism." That is, they have confidence that great things will happen if they do the right work. They see a fabulous workout or race as a hint of what they can achieve, not a unique occurrence.

In contrast, a couple of bad workouts, or a worse-than-expected race, are taken as aberrations. They are indications that something is amiss, and are opportunities for analysis: Am I not sleeping enough? Did I run like an idiot? Were my expectations in line with my current fitness? Am I on the verge of being sick? And so on. (See "Dealing With Disappointment" here for how two Olympians conducted this sort of post-mortem after unsatisfactory races in Beijing.)

SO

. . . have faith that, if your training is correct and your goals are realistic but challenging, you can surpass your current performance level. Be excited by a good workout or race – that's an indication that you're heading in the right direction. Realize that a bad workout or race happens for a reason. Instead of thinking that it's a true indication of your fitness, determine why your performance was off, and then figure out how to prevent it from recurring.

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